Teacher Discussion Forums

I have just been given a copy of the new game from ESL Education Games.
Its called Phonicword. Their website is at www.phonicball.com
Its great to see teachers creating games that work and are tested in real classroom situations
Lisa and Ray you are doing a great job. Keep them coming it makes my life easier.

Absolutely fantastic

Just used them in my class in Beijing. Brilliant stuff. Thought of at least 20 ways I can use them tomorrow. Kids love throwing the ping pong balls. Brings fun and motivation to lesson. To get kids quiet I just held up the ball. They are so eager to get a chance to throw at the target. All kids called out words when it hit a letter. I need to get some rules going.

Don't give your hard earned wages to phonicball. Just divide the whiteboard up into sections, stick a letter in each, and buy some kind of cheap toy like a sticky tomato, a sphere with suckers or a bow and arrow.

cheapscate - phonicball is a bargain and worth every penny - they're not exactly expensive either...

If you cant afford to buy one with your hard earned wages then you need to do 3 things

1. stop spending all your money on beer

2. find a position that pays you a decent wage

3. ask your school to buy a phonicball

Simple

Easy for you to say, where are you teaching that you have all this money. I am in Thailand as a volunteer and trully have NO budget. I appreciate the heads up about how to do some of these games for free.

Contribution Phonicball Theme Game-- On blackboard teacher puts the heading-- Theme Vocabulary-- Then has three columns labeled Animals-Space-Food or whatever the classroom has been studying. Students are asked to contribute a word to a theme. They must spell it correctly. If they do they can see If they can hit the initial letter on the Phonicboard. If they do they can get small reward or score points for group. This is a good way of getting kids to think about vocabulary as well reinforcing spelling. End up with three lists of words. The game has many variations.-- Eg Student throws for letter on phonicboard. Hits an “c” the student who comes up with three words (one in each theme gets the next throw.) food=chocolate…space=comet….animal=cat Can be played in groups with students having to write the words down--
Date 28/1/2005 10:09:50 by nomad

Who once said
" do not think I am especially talented at languages, and indeed at high school I was rather poor'

Who cant read
I was recently "given"

Well, that proves my point then! I'm still not talented.

Do they give them free to everybody? If not, then my comment is worthwhile.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Lisa the young lady behind the ESL games concept. Not only is she a warm and generous person she is compassionate about what she is doing. Her aim is to help teachers produce games and share ideas while making English learning fun.

She has only been able to get the games made as she has received both support and financial backing from three NET teachers in Hong Kong.

She has also received requests from teachers around the world who want to get their ideas developed and she is hoping to be able to assist them as well.

I am also aware that she has used 80% of the profits to date to support worthy causes.

I dread the day she gets taken over by a large commercial enterprise and the games are priced to fleece schools as so many of them are now.

I personally am happy not to have to make these myself. If you check out her website you will see what the teacher made game looked like. Not very inspiring although a great idea.

Ryan

Sorry to hear that you are so skint. I am in Europe where perhaps the pay is slightly better.

I ordered my Phonicball from the website – it cost me US$15. That’s less than I would spend on beer and taxi home if I went out for the night.

I am not as young as I used to be – I don’t need beer so often....

My Ss love throwing the balls and laughing when some S misses, and I don't just teach kids! I just make sure that I am well away from the board when I let my adult Ss play.

I believe ESL Games has sent free games to quite a few people that requested them. Two friends of mine who work in poorer schools as volunteers received free samples